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April 8, 2019 Sector-Based Approaches to the Identification of Human Trafficking & Forced Labor Risk
April 8, 2019
Sector-Based Approaches to the
Identification of Human
Trafficking & Forced Labor Risk
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About Verité
© 2019 Verite, Inc.
Verité is a global NGO that has worked since 1995 with
companies, governments and civil society with a mission to
ensure workers worldwide work under safe, fair, and legal
conditions.
Examples of Activities and Services:
- Original field research and assessments that
prioritize stories and voices of workers
- Consultation on systems to prevent and remediate
risks identified
- Training for company staff, suppliers, workers, and
auditors
- Creation of open source tools and resources
- Confidential and practical approach
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Independent Research
• Sheds light on poorly understood dynamics and problems with labor rights in a variety of sectors and geographies
• Creates understanding of risks and vulnerabilities
• Provides a platform for engagement: open-source tools, awareness raising, policy advocacy
© 2019 Verite, Inc.
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Sector-Based Research on Human Trafficking & Forced Labor
• Apparel – India, Myanmar
• Cattle – Bolivia
• Corn – Bolivia
• Cocoa – Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana
• Coffee – Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, Uganda
• Fishing – Ecuador, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines
• Electronics – Malaysia
• Gold – Peru
• Palm oil – Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia
• Rubber – Liberia
• Sugar – Dominican Republic, Mexico
• Shrimp – Bangladesh
• Tea – Malawi
• Tobacco – Malawi
• Tree nuts – Bolivia
© 2019 Verite, Inc.
5 © 2019 Verite, Inc.
ILO Guidelines for Defining
Forced Labor in Survey Research
6 © 2019 Verite, Inc.
ILO Measurable Indicator Framework
INDICATORS OF INVOLUNTARINESS
Unfree Recruitment
Deceptive Recruitment
Forced Overtime
Hazardous Working Conditions to which worker did not consent
Very Low or No Wage
Degrading Living Conditions
Limited or No Freedom to Terminate Work Contract
Forced to Work for Longer Period than Agreed
INDICATORS OF THREAT AND MENACE OF ANY PENALTY
Violence – Threat or Actual, against worker or family
Limited Freedom of Movement or Communication
Debt Bondage or Manipulation of Debt
Withholding of Wages or Other Promised Benefit
Withholding of Valuable Documents (such as identity documents or residency permit)
Abuse of Vulnerability through Denial of Rights or Privileges
Threat of Dismissal
Threat of Deportation
7© 2019 Verite, Inc.
Operationalizing the Indicators
• Rapid assessment to identify a set of indicators of potential
relevance for the sector under study and
• Preliminary definitions of each indicator in terms of sector-
and country-context
• Design of survey instrument to explore presence or absence
of each indicator for each respondent
• Data collection with mixed qualitative quantitative instrument
• Research findings analyzed to evaluate nature of risk of each
indicator in the sector
8© 2019 Verite, Inc.
Advantages of the Indicator Approach
• Disaggregation of human trafficking or forced labor
into component elements
• Root cause analysis
• Policy relevance
• Documents workers’ exposure to human trafficking
or forced labor risk even when those workers are
not currently experiencing human trafficking or
forced labor
9 © 2019 Verite, Inc.
© Verité September 2014
10 © 2019 Verite, Inc.
Project Methodology
• Cross sectional research design
• Mixed-methods approach (quantitative
survey plus qualitative text boxes and in-
depth interviews)
• Purposive non-probability sampling to set
regional and ethnic sampling targets, then
snowball sampling to recruit participants
• Expert interviews and consultations
11 © 2019 Verite, Inc.
• 501 workers (54% female, 46% male)
• All major migrant-sending countries, as well as
Malaysians
• No more than 5 workers sampled from any
one factory
• Nearly 200 factories sampled in all
• All electronics-producing regions of the country
• Makers of all major electronics product
categories
Sample Frame
12 © 2019 Verite, Inc.
Example of Indicator Definition
A respondent with (a strong indicator of involuntariness in
the Work and Life Under Duress dimension) was defined as being either:
• provided housing by their employer (the facility or broker), is not allowed to come and go freely from their housing, and needs a pass or permit to go beyond a certain distance from their housing.
OR
• their passport is held by the facility or broker/agent, it is difficult or impossible to get their passport back when they need it, and they are unable to move around freely and safely without their passport or travel documents on them.
13© 2019 Verite, Inc.
Survey Questions for Limited Freedom of Movement and
Communication Indicator
Corresponding
Formula:
If Q106 =
“Facility” OR
“Broker/agent”
AND
Q115 = “No”
AND
Q116 = “Yes”
OR
If Q69 =
“Facility” OR
“Broker/agent”
AND
(Q69b = “Yes,
but difficult” OR
“No”) AND
(Q70 = “No” OR
Q78 = “Yes”)
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Forced Labor Indicators in
Electronics Production in
Malaysia
Fees and debt: 92% of foreign workers paid recruitment fees to get their job94% (of those) paid illegally or unethically high fees77% (of those who paid fees) had to borrow money to pay to get their job
Passport withholding:94% of foreign workers did not hold their passports71% of those did not have unrestricted access to their passports
Limited freedom of movement62% of foreign workers surveyed were unable to move about freely
Inability to resign contracts: 57% of foreign workers could not resign without suffering some form of penalty such as a heavy fine or losing their passport
Deceptive recruitment: 22% of foreign workers surveyed were deceived about the terms and conditions of employment
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Study Impacts
© 2019 Verite, Inc.
Adoption of ‘no fees’ policies by electronics
industry membership group and many major
multinational electronics brands
Reduction in level and frequency of fee charging
in some supply chains
Clarification by Malaysian government that it is
illegal to withhold workers’ passports
Increase in foreign workers holding their own
passports
More hotlines and grievance channels available
to foreign workers
Incubation of “ethical recruitment” approaches
16 © 2019 Verite, Inc.
© Verité February 2019
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Forced Labor Indicators in Coca
Farming in Côte d’Ivoire
• Deceptive recruitment: Young
men seeking economic
opportunity recruited in home
country (Burkina Faso or Mali)
and promised money and
experience.
• Induced/Inflated Indebtedness:
Workers incur debt to cover travel
expenses like bus fees.
• Withheld wages: Workers are
often not paid until after the
harvest and debt obligations may
take all of their earnings.
• Isolation and Restricted
Freedom of Movement: Cocoa
farms often very isolated,
particularly when workers sleep
near farm rather than village and
migrants may not have an
opportunity to contact family.
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Example - Using Indicators to Inform
Interventions – Cocoa Sector of Cote d’IvoireIndicator Root Cause Potential Intervention
Deception at
recruitment
Migrant workers unaware of rights
and conditions before arriving at farm
• Awareness raising for workers, producers, cooperatives,
implementers of other community-based programming about
rights and risk factors/nature of risk/profiles of at-risk workers and
responsibilities of producers
Debt tied to
recruitment
(transport), inflated
debt, wage
withholding
Producers lack access to adequate
credit and earn low incomes due to
market structure reliance on
vulnerable labor; worker access to all
credit linked to producer.
• Mechanisms to provide producers and workers with access to
credit (i.e. building out VSLA programs)
• Potentially including reimbursement for worker travel costs
• Producers hiring workers have access to credit to pay worker
before harvest if necessary
Isolation, multiple
dependencies on
employer
No means of registering
grievance/seeking assistance after
arrival. Limited on-going monitoring
of conditions by “boots on the
ground.”
• Development of grievance mechanism for workers;
• Strengthen remediation procedures and systems for workers,
particularly for migrant workers (including witnessing of verbal work
agreements by neutral third party) via implementing partners
• Integration/strengthening of forced labor monitoring in existing
monitoring systems
Underlying infrastructure need – What will make this possible:
• Increasing organization of sector – If more farmers participate in producer organizations/cooperatives/community-based initiatives
with strong capacity, these efforts can serve as infrastructure for trainings, monitoring, grievance mechanisms, credit, and can
support earnings.
• Leveraging existing programming on the ground whenever possible
